I am one of the "deluded by mendacity and make-believe" voters mentioned in the article.
Is it mendacious to think that our exporters to the rest of the world are not subject to the rules and regulations made by those countries? Just as those countries that export to us are subject to our rules and regulations. After all we drive on the correct side of the road!
Am I deluded to think that BMW and Mercedes will still want to sell their vehicles to the UK? If they do then why can't JaguarLandRover sell to Europe?
Is it make-believe to think that a country that imports more than it exports will be shunned by those counties which export to us?
Am I deluded to think that Britain in Europe has as much influence as Scotland does in the UK?
Is it mendacious to think that those business leaders who told us that not joining the Euro would be a disaster for our economy were right?
Is it make-believe to think that these same business leaders are now right in their assertion that leaving Europe would be a disaster? After all they are omnipotent and never wrong!
Is it wrong to want to be free to choose who governs this country? I understand that Sovereignty is limited, as it has been for centuries, but if I don't like the Government I like to think that my vote could change that at the next election. Where as, if we remain, in Europe my vote is worthless.
In previous years the "3 million jobs depend on Europe" has be cited by those arguing to stay in Europe. By implication if we left those jobs would disappear. Is this true?
It seems to me that fear is the weapon being used by both sides of the argument. Fear of loss of jobs, influence, power versus fear of unlimited immigration, a never ending demand for more money or whatever threat can be dreamed up.
There are pros and cons on both sides of the argument.
All I ask for is for someone to " give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown".

Toynbee believed that societies always die from suicide or murder rather than from natural causes, and nearly always from suicide. He saw the growth and decline of civilizations as a spiritual process, writing that "Man achieves civilization, not as a result of superior biological endowment or geographical environment, but as a response to a challenge in a situation of special difficulty which rouses him to make a hitherto unprecedented effort."
I've a lot of sympathy to the views of the former Governor of Hong Kong ( I met him there officially (1970's) after we brought down the Union Jack!).

If the UK want's to be a member of a large, messed up political entity, why not become the 51st thru 54th states of the US. It would have to be better than the EU and would be very good for the US as well. Time to go all in on the "special relationship".

Chris Patten is summing up the sense of pessimism in Britain ahead of a possible referendum on its EU-membership later this year. This comes at a time when the global economy "is at risk of flat-lining". Prospects for peace in Middle East look gloomy, with Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and Pakistan, The emergence of ISIS has escalated sectarian violence in Iraq and the civil war in Syria. The ancient Sunni-Shia schism is once again pitting Iran against Saudi Arabia or vice versa. There is no end in sight to the influx of migrants arriving "by the thousand at Europe’s fragile borders". North Korea continues to expand its nuclear arsenal, posing a security threat to regional stability.
Patten puts the blame on David Cameron for launching the referendum - "introduced as a way to placate the growing number of anti-EU voices in the Conservative Party". If the Britons vote to leave, it will do "irreparable harm to Britain" and there is no room for Cameron to remain in power. Since he announced in January 2013 his pledge to hold a referendum, industries and businesses have gone through three years of uncertainty, dampening investor confidence and creating instability. The pound sterling remains under severe downward pressure.
Although Patten was a minister under Margaret Thatcher, he certainly doesn't harbour the distinctly Thatcherite views. She ripped against her European counterparts, refusing to countenance any increase in the power of the European Community and outraging many colleagues. David Cameron hasn't continued her policies and sees the EU very differently to Thatcher, who was strongly opposed to referendums on Europe, when she was prime minister. She attacked the Labour government’s decision to call an in-out referendum in 1975, saying "the late Lord Attlee was right when he said that the referendum was a device of dictators and demagogues". David Cameron may try to justify his referendum, arguing the EU’s legitimacy in the UK is now so low that only a popular vote can restore it. Another difference is that Thatcher began as a passionate pro-European who became a virulent eurosceptic. Cameron, by contrast, has always been a moderate sceptic, and never very interested in the EU.
It's unclear whether Cameron's cherry-picking strategy works. He understands how Britain’s diplomatic clout and economic strength gain from EU membership. As critics say, because many conservative tories prefer to believe in simpler, Thatcherite truths, Cameron now finds it almost impossible to control his party. It ends up with Thatcher’s legacy poisoning Cameron’s inheritance. Instead of focusing on domestic issues, Patten suggests Cameron to lead "the effort to complete the single market" and to "be at the forefront of the campaign to complete the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the US". There are plenty more issues the UK can focus on, that help shape a better future.

Its a bit ingenious of Mr Patten to describe the British voter as being at risk of being 'deluded by mendacity and make-believe' and voting to leave the EU. Mr Patten had a stint at the BBC which is viewed by some as being both mendacious and metropolitan and used to warping reality and high level unaccountability as is due to be detailed in the Savile report

Mr Patten refers to 'the Norwegians called it “fax democracy”: Instructions from Brussels would simply appear in Oslo government offices, to be implemented without debate'. Well bless me Sherlock, that sounds remarkably like what happens with the UK right now. Except I would add one rider to that. It would appear Poland for example can say to Brussels what it wants to be onward transmitted to the UK

To read Mr Patten you would think the Sun rose and set in Brussels. Perhaps it does for him

Lord Patten is forthright in recognizing reasons for Britain to stay in and with Europe.
The British public too always exercise wisdom when push cones to shove.
Britain is a little island, off the coast of The Heartland, like Japan in Asia.
Yet it is Britain - perhaps singlehandedly - that created The Anglosphere.
Enabling millions of endless stream of European migrants - to find refuge in The Anglosphere.
That stream remains as copious as it has been for nearly 500 years now.
Lord Patten perhaps needs to guide Europe in understanding why that stream never reverses.
Always one way traffic - out of Europe into The Anglosphere.
If European narrative changes to course in becoming another pillar like The Anglosphere.
Then it will have created space to suck in millions of hapless migrants - like The Anglosphere.
And European Economics will begin to reach heights that it can.
Britain inside Europe - like Japan inside Asia - is destined to play this role.
But it takes two to tango.

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